Curran: Brady and his no-good, 6-2 Pats march on

[Ivan]

I can't wait to see how the DL looks with Jones lined up beside Kelly and how deep the Defensive backfield is going to be with Talib back and Ryan as a sub. The injuries suck but their depth is definitely getting the reps and opportunities to improve. By season's end Chris Jones, Logan Ryan, Joe Vellano, Jamie Collins, and Micheal Buchanon are all going to have played significant downs and roles this season, and that's just the defensive rookies.

 

[mgcolby]

6-2 and the best is still yet to come for this team. Hopefully Vereen will be back to be the change of pace RB that the offense has been missing since week 2, Brady will get better with his receivers and the defense will gel and get Kelly/Talib back as the season goes on.

I also love the fact that this team has been grinding out wins. This team has been battle-tested early and this will be good experience and preparation for what's to come in the last part of the season.

Vereen will be much more than the change of pace back. He will be THE back. Bolden will not see the field when Vereen gets back, Blount will have his snaps/carries greatly reduced, if not completely disappear, assuming Ridley gets out of the ****house.

I know week 1 was a small sample, but I think some folks don't realize how big of a role was carved out for Vereen coming into the season. Taking on a lot of what Hernandez was doing out of the backfield and slot as well as the 3rd down back. Then given Ridley's case of the fumbles in Training Camp which spilled over into the early part of the season, essentially turned Vereen into a 3 down back by the 2nd half of the Bills game.

I am absolutely stoked about Vereen's return. He will be healthy and doesn't have the wear and tear of 9 games on him. He should be a monster down the stretch.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

This team is in an extremely fragile state right now. Even if we lose to Pit, i'll gladly take 6-3 into the bye week, boy does this team needs a bye week.

 

[Joker]

you should take a bye year...

 

[Gronk]

Loved the article. My sentiments exactly.

 

[Archeryaddict12]

This team is in an extremely fragile state right now. Even if we lose to Pit, i'll gladly take 6-3 into the bye week, boy does this team needs a bye week.

You amaze me. I wish I could hear your criticisms of the 2007 team.

 

[Joker]

the most unbalanced libra I've ever run across, Archie

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Also worth noting that over the past 3 games, the offense has scored an average of 25.6 points per game. This figure does not include the pick-6 by Logan Ryan. This figure would put the Patriots in the top 10 offenses in the league.

This despite the drops, the miscommunications, the inconsistency, the poor OL play, the misreads and poor throws, the everything else you can possibly think of. We have people who want to get rid of Josh and Brady and yet, the past 3 games, our offense has been top-10 caliber even while playing the #4 scoring defense and the #6 total defense.

I think some perspective is required for many posters.

 

[crypto]

Brady's season stats: 171/307 (55.7 pct), 1,824 yards (5.9 avg), 9 TD, 6 INT, 74.9 rating.

As we all know, the Pats lead the league with 24 dropped passes (7.9%). Let's say that 1/3 of these (8) are Brady's fault and 2/3 (16) are on the receivers. Convert the latter portion to 16 completions for a total of 171 yards (16*10.7 where 10.7 equals Brady's yards per completion this year). Assume for the sake of caution all other stats (TDs, picks, etc.) stay the same.

Brady's stats with 2/3 fewer drops: 187/307 (60.9 pct), 1,995 yards (6.5 avg), 9 TD, 6 INT, 81.6 rating.

Obviously 81.6 isn't great and I'm not a big enough homer to claim Brady's having a very good season sans the drops, but Jesus, those differences. I fully intend to copy/paste this the next time I see someone throw a hissy fit over his play.

 

[Fencer]

Any given Sunday aside, I do not like the Patriots chances at all against the Broncos without Kyle Arrington, Talib and Tommy Kelly back.

You are probably right to think that, against an excellent passing team, it would be nice to have one or both of our highest-paid CBs.

 

[Fencer]

Vereen will be much more than the change of pace back. He will be THE back. Bolden will not see the field when Vereen gets back, Blount will have his snaps/carries greatly reduced, if not completely disappear, assuming Ridley gets out of the ****house.

I know week 1 was a small sample, but I think some folks don't realize how big of a role was carved out for Vereen coming into the season. Taking on a lot of what Hernandez was doing out of the backfield and slot as well as the 3rd down back. Then given Ridley's case of the fumbles in Training Camp which spilled over into the early part of the season, essentially turned Vereen into a 3 down back by the 2nd half of the Bills game.

I am absolutely stoked about Vereen's return. He will be healthy and doesn't have the wear and tear of 9 games on him. He should be a monster down the stretch.

This assumes Vereen can take the hits. Unfortunately, he hasn't proved that yet, at least in the pros.

 

[ausbacker]

This assumes Vereen can take the hits. Unfortunately, he hasn't proved that yet, at least in the pros.

How does a thumb injury correlate with your contention about Vereen and hits?

 

[Fencer]

How does a thumb injury correlate with your contention about Vereen and hits?

Honestly, I haven't memorized Vereen's injuries nor their causes. For example, I don't recall which season he was sidelined by a thumb injury or for how long. But it seems he broke his wrist this year on the first play of this season, and to date (preseason aside) he's never gotten more than 70 touches in a pro year.

 

[supafly]

against an excellent passing team, it would be nice to have one or both of our highest-paid CBs.

Is Arrington's injury significant? I haven't heard anything myself.

On another note, Arrington should thank his lucky stars for that 4 million dollar AAV deal. That tells me one of three things:

1. Belichick feels that the market for CBs was off a bit and/or it will rise once again, and that 4 million will be a fair amount for a nickle CB who can start outside in a pinch (with major dropoff in my opinion)

2. Belichick was unsure about the prospects of bringing back Talib and did not want to gamble by needing to start rookies at both outside CB and nickle CB positions with losing both Talib and Arrington

3. Belichick just feels that Arrington's value and talent are worthy of a starter's salary, thus in the range of some of this free agent classes top percentage of CBs. He obviously feels (or felt) that Arrington could start on the outside without too much drawback, because that isn't a nickle CB's pact

 

[Claremonster]

I don't understand how fans can discount their wins at being 6-2 to "luck" and "playing mediocre teams"

And then go praise Kansas city and the broncos who have played a very weak schedule so far with "mediocre teams"

Kansas City has a good defense, but, I've never said that they're dominant. They barely beat the Browns. Broncos and the Seahawks are the two most overrated teams in the NFL in my opinion. There is no dominant team this year. I don't care what the media says...

I mainly think that either Brady doesn't have confidence now, or he is playing hurt, or his best days are behind him. He isn't the only problem that the Pats have...but he isn't like he was before. Something is a miss. Something doesn't seem right with him.

 

[Claremonster]

I would use a lot of adjectives (some good, some bad) to describe this team. "Lucky" would not be one of them. I must be watching different games than you are.

Lucky is only one of the words that I used...unlucky (injury wise) would be another.

 

[ausbacker]

Honestly, I haven't memorized Vereen's injuries nor their causes. For example, I don't recall which season he was sidelined by a thumb injury or for how long. But it seems he broke his wrist this year on the first play of this season, and to date (preseason aside) he's never gotten more than 70 touches in a pro year.

I'm not worried about Vereen.

 

[Fencer]

Is Arrington's injury significant? I haven't heard anything myself.

On another note, Arrington should thank his lucky stars for that 4 million dollar AAV deal. That tells me one of three things:

1. Belichick feels that the market for CBs was off a bit and/or it will rise once again, and that 4 million will be a fair amount for a nickle CB who can start outside in a pinch (with major dropoff in my opinion)

2. Belichick was unsure about the prospects of bringing back Talib and did not want to gamble by needing to start rookies at both outside CB and nickle CB positions with losing both Talib and Arrington

3. Belichick just feels that Arrington's value and talent are worthy of a starter's salary, thus in the range of some of this free agent classes top percentage of CBs. He obviously feels (or felt) that Arrington could start on the outside without too much drawback, because that isn't a nickle CB's pact

I started another thread on it, I think. It seems the injury is minor but lingering, which is always a bit scary.

 

[1960Pats]

Naysaying - I think it's the right of any fan to question why this team's offense went from one of the best in the NFL to one of the worst in one off-season.

Booing - Once again I respect the right of the fan. If the players don't want to hear boos then don't throw a pick 6 or fumble inside the red zone. The fans pay the freight.

 

[Kontradiction]

You are probably right to think that, against an excellent passing team, it would be nice to have one or both of our highest-paid CBs.

Yeah, we're going to need Talib and Arrington healthy against the Broncos. That goes without saying. When healthy, this secondary is one of the best equipped to slow down the Broncos passing attack. There's still almost a month before that game so hopefully the secondary can stay intact and we can get Talib back up and running.